UPDATE Village at Wolf Creek - May 28, 2019 - Back to Court.

Here we go again, news from :

We filed suit on Tuesday to challenge the US Forest Service's approval to grant increased road access to the Village at Wolf Creek

As you may remember, last year, the Rio Grande National Forest Supervisor Dan Dallas signed a Final Record of Decision that provided expanded access across National Forest System lands to the private parcel created during the controversial 1986 land exchange. That private parcel, proposed home to the "Village" at Wolf Creek, is in the middle of a critical widllife corridor between two wilderness areas vital to threatened Canada lynx and home to rare fen wetlands and the headwaters of the Rio Grande.

The decision was based on the same environmental analysis that the late Judge Matsch deemed "an artful dodge" and ruled was arbitrary, capricious, and contrary to law on Endangered Species Day in 2017. In fact, Courts have repeatedly blocked attempts to fast track approvals and skimp on environmental analysis and public input.

We had called for the Forest Service to conduct a new environmental impact statement that fully considered the impact to species like the Canada lynx, but the Forest Service decided instead to give the developers increased road access. 

Well, on Tuesday, we, along with our partners, once again filed a lawsuit seeking to invalidate that Final Record of Decision.

To help fund further efforts to protect Wolf Creek Pass, please visit our donation webpage and select "Friends of Wolf Creek" under "Direct My Donation."

For the wild!

Chris Talbot-Heindl

For more information about the battle to keep Wolf Creek Pass wild, visit the Friends of Wolf Creek website

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

PRESS RELEASE: Conservation Groups Challenge Forest Service Again Over Approval of Village at Wolf Creek

Published by Chris Talbot-Heindl on May 28, 2019

http://www.friendsofwolfcreek.org/press-release-conservation-groups-challenge-forest-service-again-over-approval-of-village-at-wolf-creek/
     

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

Conservation groups challenge road access for Village at Wolf Creek

Forest Service says environmental reviews sound

By Jonathan Romeo, County and environment reporter

Tuesday, May 28, 2019

https://durangoherald.com/articles/278902

A coalition of environmental groups Tuesday filed a challenge of the U.S. Forest Service’s approval last year to grant road access to the Village at Wolf Creek, a decision that ultimately paves the way for the proposed massive development atop Wolf Creek Pass.

“Once again, it falls to the public to demand protection of Wolf Creek Pass, a place long cherished by generations of visitors and residents alike,” said Jimbo Buickerood, lands program manager at San Juan Citizens Alliance, in a prepared statement. “Though the Forest Service might be inclined to renege on its stewardship responsibilities, we are ready to insist on compliance with the law and the public’s will.” …

Jonathan Romeo reports 7/19/2018 Village at Wolf Creek road access

Here's a look at what others are writing:

______________

July 19, 2018, by Jonathan Romeo county and environment reporter, Durango Herald

Forest Service gives Village at Wolf Creek road access

Development atop Wolf Creek Pass gets path forward

https://durangoherald.com/articles/232567-forest-service-gives-village-at-wolf-creek-road-access

In a bombshell decision, the U.S. Forest Service on Thursday gave the Village at Wolf Creek its long-desired road access to U.S. Highway 160, essentially paving the way for the proposed massive resort atop Wolf Creek Pass.

“The reason is we still have a legal requirement to provide access to landlocked parcels,” Rio Grande Forest Supervisor Dan Dallas told The Durango Herald late Thursday.

The news came as a shock to a coalition of environmental groups that for three decades have opposed what would essentially amount to a new town in a remote part of Southwest Colorado, adjacent to the relatively small Wolf Creek Ski Area.

The decision was especially jarring for environmentalists because a federal judge in May 2017 ruled the Forest Service skirted its responsibilities to protect public lands when it approved a land swap that also sought to give the Village at Wolf Creek road access to U.S. Highway 160. …

____________________

Village at Wolf Creek Access Project: New draft decision grants access to land-locked private property

By Mike Blakeman, Special to The Pagosa SUN, July 19, 2018

http://www.pagosasun.com/village-at-wolf-creek-access-project-new-draft-decision-grants-access-to-land-locked-private-property-and/

… “This has been a long, complex project and I encourage folks to learn more about its status and review the new draft decision for themselves,” added Dallas. “It’s also important to know that the land exchange option, as the selected alternative, remains on the table pending resolution of the legal process.”

The draft Record of Decision is now available for public review during a formal 45-day objection period. The objection period will run through Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018. 

To learn more about the project, read previous comments, or to object, please visit 

https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=35945.  

A final decision is expected in the autumn of 2018.

________________________

Forest Service Plans to Grant Access to Wolf Creek Complex

July 19, 2018, AP

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/colorado/articles/2018-07-19/forest-service-plans-to-grant-access-to-wolf-creek-complex

… The would-be developers, a joint venture spearheaded by Texas billionaire B.J. "Red" McCombs, have sought since the 1980s to build the complex called the Village at Wolf Creek, but the property has always been cut off from U.S. Highway 160. …

… But the decision was especially jarring for the development's opponents, who thought Matsch's decision closed the book on the development.

"I've never seen anything this egregious in its disregard for the law," said Travis Stills, an attorney who represents the environmental groups opposed to the plan. "In normal times, people lose their jobs over things like this. But these are not normal times.”

The proposed road would be about 1,610 feet (491 meters) long (at the elevation of). Any proposal for the actual development would have to be approved by Mineral County officials.

The public can comment for the next 45 days on the Forest Service's proposal to grant road access. The agency is expected to announce its final decision this fall.

__________________________

The draft Record of Decision is now available for public review during a formal 45-day objection period. The objection period will run through Sept. 4. To learn more about the project, read previous comments, or to object, please visit https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=35945.  A final decision is expected in the autumn of 2018.

Village at Wolf Creek Poker update: USDA/USFS Folds, Red Holds.

With a tip of my hat to Jimbo Buickerood, at the San Juan Citizens Alliance, for alerting me to Jonathan Romeo's report in the May 10th Durango Herald on the latest Village at Wolf Creek development.  Namely, as the time limit ran out the USFS appears to have decided not to appeal Judge Matsch's decision of last May.  

Leavell-McCombs Joint Venture's Attorney Bill Leone defiantly announced that it doesn't matter to them what the USFS does.  They have gone ahead on their own and filed an appeal on Wednesday, arguing that "the environmental review was done according to the law and the land swap should be approved."

May 14th Update - USDA/USAF filed an "Unopposed Motion to Dismiss Appeal by Appellant United States"

But Judge Matsch sets this lawyerly 'misrepresentation' straight, when he clearly explained in his decision:

(Page 21 of 40)

ANALYSIS

The following aspects of the Record of Decision and the Biological Opinion that forms part of the basis for the ROD require relief under the APA. Defendants failed to consider important aspects of the issues before them, offered an explanation for their decision that runs counter to the evidence, failed to base their decision on consideration of the relevant factors, and based their decision on an analysis that is contrary to law.

(Page 39 of 40) 

The 900 public comments in the record show this heightened public awareness of the effects of human disruption of the native environment. The Rio Grande National Forest has two designated wilderness areas near the area involved in this action. It has unique features. 

Notably, responses to the public comments were prepared by the contractors who did the work. 

They would not be expected to find that work to be flawed.

What NEPA requires is that before taking any major action a federal agency must stop and take a careful look to determine the environmental impact of that decision, and listen to the public before taking action. The Forest Service failed to do that in the Record of Decision. The duty of this Court is to set it aside.

VII. ORDER

Where an agency action is found to be arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law,

(Page 40 of 40)

the Court must “hold [it] unlawful and set [it] aside.” 5 U.S.C. § 706(2). The Court finds and concludes that Defendants‟ actions violated the APA in the respects specified in this decision.  

UPDATE Oct18th, they're baaack. Red appeals Judge Matsch's VWC decision.

So sad, nothing is ever learned.  

The McCombs have turned a deft ear to all the reasoned arguments.  Facts don’t seem to matter.  Objectively speaking, considering the community, the Rio Grande River, the Alberta Park watershed, all would best be served by that Alberta Park parcel being left alone to continue fulfilling it’s biological and hydrological services as the keystone to the Wolf Creek watershed and wilderness and an integral part of the Rio Grande National Forest from which it was absconded through a 1980s game of shady land grab poker.

Only obsessive greed and some bizarre need to despoil land for the sake of proving one’s own mastery can explain such obsession.  Here we go again.  

For a look at Senior Judge Matsch’s Order May 21, 2017 see the end of this post.

_____________________________________________________________

Village at Wolf Creek appeals decision blocking access

Opponents say Forest Service skirted its duties

By Jonathan Romeo Herald staff writer, the DURANGO HERALD, October. 16, 2017

Leavell-McCombs Joint Venture – spearheaded by Texas billionaire B.J. “Red” McCombs – has filed an appeal with the next tier of the federal court system, challenging a previous federal judge’s decision that the massive development atop Wolf Creek Pass was approved “contrary to law.”

“The Joint-Venture believes strongly the project is a good project and the Forest Service did everything it needed to do to study the environmental impacts of that project,” said Bill Leone, an attorney representing the developers. The appeal was filed Friday.  …

In May, Judge Richard P. Matsch, a senior U.S. district judge for the District of Colorado, in no uncertain terms, agreed.

“What NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) requires is that before taking any major action, a federal agency must stop and take a careful look to determine the environmental impact of that decision, and listen to the public before taking action,” Matsch wrote in his decision. “The Forest Service failed to do that.”

In September, Matsch denied a request from Leavell-McCombs Joint Venture to reconsider the May decision.

“The Forest Service cannot abdicate its responsibility to protect the forest by making an attempt at an artful dodge,” Matsch wrote in that decision. …